Self-guided Field Trip by Heather Gibson

Each September thousands of migrating Vaux’s Swifts pause to roost in the old brick chimney at Frank Wagner Elementary School in Monroe, a rest stop on their route from northwestern Canada to Central America and Venezuela. An unforgettable spectacle unfolds each evening when the Vaux’s are in town. About an hour before sunset they begin to gather, circling the chimney in growing numbers. All at once as the sun goes down, they whisk into the chimney – tails first! There can be as many as 20,000 Vaux’s on an evening during the first weeks of September, and the birds keep coming in smaller numbers even into early October.

Frank Wagner Elementary School
115 Dickinson Rd
Monroe, WA 98272
Google Map

Selleck Vaux Swift roost
A self-guided trip birders can take right now is to the visit a place where migrating Vaux’s Swifts roost at night in chimneys. One popular site to view the spectacle of them settling in for the night is in Selleck, about 30 miles east of Kent.The brick chimney that the birds roost in is attached to a large two story wooden structure that years ago was a public schoolhouse and is now a private residence. This site historically hosts a large number of Vaux’s Swifts as a migratory communal roost site. Vaux’s Happening project has compiled data that shows it as one of the ten most significant known roost sites for this species in North America. 

Selleck School
35699 SE 252nd St
Ravensdale, Washington
Google Map

For more information about Vaux’s Swifts see the Vaux’s Happening website.